I have always loved fantasy worlds and romantic stories, but in recent years I’ve found it harder to read stories with extreme violence or trauma. When I started writing fiction, I planned to write a fantasy romance with a kingdom and a battle, but I couldn’t do it—my characters organized a nonviolent revolution and formed a democratic system of governance instead. I reconsidered and decided to write what I call cozy fantasy romances. So many types of romance novels could be set in a fantasy world, such as an office romance or road trip comedy. I’ve been searching for these types of romance novels—fun, lighthearted romances set in a fantasy world—and am slowly finding them.
This book made me laugh out loud so many times—it's the funniest fantasy I have ever read. An oddball crew breaks into the protagonist’s prison cell to rescue a prince, so the protagonist claims to be the prince and is rescued along with his cellmate.
The journey back to the prince’s country is a road trip comedy with a wacky cast... but amid all the crude jokes are real emotional moments and characters being kind to each other. The protagonist can’t stop himself from falling for the prince and grows as a person in the process. Nothing about the story ever gets too serious, and the bad bits happen quickly and without prolonged trauma. I loved everything about it.
From the first page to the end, this story hooked me with its enemies-to-lovers romance. It has a cast of great characters, all of them well-developed, and a huge dollop of conflict (Mercy saving the family undertaking business, Hart fighting zombie-like monsters) without constant stress. The romance progresses at the perfect pace.
I especially loved the world: it’s so calm and, at times, funny, even with the zombies. I loved that the gods and religion in the world feel tangible as if the gods have only recently departed; the religion is peaceful and brings people comfort. I was nervous to read about undertaking and zombies, but the rituals for death in the book’s world felt caring and kind.
"A uniquely charming mixture of whimsy and the macabre that completely won me over. If you ever wished for an adult romance that felt like Howl's Moving Castle, THIS IS THAT BOOK." —Helen Hoang, author of The Kiss Quotient
Hart is a marshal, tasked with patrolling the strange and magical wilds of Tanria. It’s an unforgiving job, and Hart’s got nothing but time to ponder his loneliness.
Mercy never has a moment to herself. She’s been single-handedly keeping Birdsall & Son Undertakers afloat in defiance of sullen jerks like Hart, who seems to have a gift for showing up right…
This book starts with the heroine stumbling home drunk after eating a lot of cheese at her village’s harvest festival. The irreverent tone continues as she rescues a man in the forest, discovers he’s a demon from another dimension and gets swept up in his quest to take down an evil witch.
The whole story is so much fun. Even when violence and destruction happen (along the lines of “half the city was destroyed”), the goofy nature of the book helped me move past it without taking it seriously. (I wasn't thinking too hard about the destruction, but some readers might not like it.) And, of course, the demon becomes a sexy love interest.
In this novella, a human witch from an Earth-like world falls for a life-form from another dimension, who is a fragment of the all-consuming being who fills her dimension and occasionally breaks through to the human planet and devours people. Trillan struggles to maintain a humanoid shape so she won’t scare off Sian, while Sian tries to keep her mind on her research and off of the ethically gray area of getting it on with her research subject. The whole thing is completely adorable and sweet.
Life is tough when you're an eldritch abomination.
Trillin isn't technically a person. She's a tiny breakaway piece of consciousness from the all-devouring Endless, doomed to eventually rejoin it. But when a human witch stumbles into her world, Trillin suddenly has a new reason to figure out individuality-one shape-shifting tentacle at a time.
Sian is sure important magical discoveries are just around the corner, if she can just get her portals to work reliably. Reaching the dimension of the Endless without being eaten on sight is a dream come true, and Sian is determined to explore every bit of it.…
Deven is a super nice and laid-back guy who is sent by his village leaders to seduce the dragon who lives up on the hill, in order to get one of the dragon’s scales. The dragon has never hurt anyone (it turns out he supports the local businesses), and when he takes his human form, he’s awkward and bumbling, while trying to be commanding and scary. It’s the perfect setup for a sweet love story with some high-stakes background drama (for example, Deven has to meet the parent dragons) without a lot of stress. And, like all romance novels, it has a guaranteed happy ending.
The Forest Brideis a lighthearted romp on the romance end of the fantasy-romance spectrum.
Rose will never escape the castle. The guards have caught her every time she’s tried. After thirteen years imprisoned in her tower, she’s resigned to her fate of an arranged marriage to a vain, tiresome, and/or brutish prince until she meets Dustan. Dustan isn’t like the other princes who’ve come. He’s kind and asks Rose her thoughts. But Rose discovers that Dustan harbors a secret—he may not be a prince… or human.
Growing up in New England, my mother had a set of books that she kept in the living room, more for display than anything else. It was The Works of Edgar Allen Poe. I read them and instantly became hooked on horror. In the seventh grade, I entertained my friends at a sleepover by telling them the mysterious clanking noise (created by the baseboard heater) was the ghost of a woman who had once lived in the farmhouse, forced to cannibalize her ten children during a particularly bad winter. And I’ve been enjoying scaring people ever since.
In 1939, on a remote Pacific island, botanical researcher Irene Greer plunged off a waterfall to her death, leaving behind a legacy shrouded in secrets. Her great-niece Julia, a struggling journalist recovering from a divorce, seeks answers decades later.
Tasked with retrieving Dr. Greer’s discovery–a flower that could have world-changing properties–Julia unearths a story rife with hidden agendas and a missionary community unwilling to share the truth. As she confronts the eerie legends and a fellow traveler with his own motives, Julia finds that the longer she stays, the thinner the line between reality and the fantastical becomes until she…
From the award-winning author of Dead Souls and Poe comes an all-new bone-chilling novel where a mysterious island holds the terrifying answers to a woman's past and future.
In 1939, on a remote Pacific island, botanical researcher Irene Greer plunges off a waterfall to her death, convinced the spirits of her dead husband and daughter had joined the nightmarchers-ghosts of ancient warriors that rise from their burial sites on moonless nights. But was it suicide, or did a strange young missionary girl, Agnes, play a role in Irene's deteriorating state of mind?
